Isabella I of Jerusalem

Isabella I of Jerusalem (1172-5 April 1205) was Queen of Jerusalem from 1192 to 5 April 1205, succeeding Conrad of Montferrat (her late husband) and preceding Maria of Montferrat (her daughter).

Biography
Isabella was born in 1172, daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and Maria Komnene, Queen of Jerusalem. She married Humphrey IV of Toron in 1183 at the request of her half-brother Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, and they were besieged in Kerak Castle by Saladin and his Ayyubids as they were married there. Baldwin forced Saladin to lift the siege, and Baldwin made his nephew Baldwin V of Jerusalem the heir to the throne soon after; Isabella and Sibylla of Jerusalem were considered possible successors to Baldwin if he died. Sibylla and her husband Guy of Lusignan were crowned shortly before Baldwin died (possibly from poisoning), and Isabella and Humphrey made homage to the royal couple instead of allying against him, as the nobles had hoped. However, the opponents of the House of Lusignan claimed that Isabella's early marriage to Humphrey made their marriage illegitimate, and they secured her marriage to Conrad of Montferrat instead; Conrad and Isabella were crowned co-rulers of Jerusalem. Conrad was an enemy of the Lusignan dynasty, and he was murdered by Guy's partisans in 1192. However, Isabella ruled Jerusalem by herself after 1192, and she reigned until 1205. She remarried to Henry II of Champagne and then Amalric I of Cyprus, and her daughter (by Conrad) Maria Montferrat succeeded her as Queen of Jerusalem.